The market for co-op live service shooters isn’t exactly hurting for new entries. It’s a market dominated with more losses than hits where for everyDestiny 2there’s anAnthemandMarvel’s Avengers.Releasing a live service game in today’s market is a risky bet, especially when the game is a departure from its predecessor. Yet, that’s exactly whatHelldivers IIis offering. It’s a live service co-op third-person shooter, a change from the original’s top-down perspective. DoesHelldivers IIprovide enough fun experiences to keep players coming back to fight for liberty and democracy or is Super Earth doomed from the start?
Helldivers IIputs players in the shoes of the Helldivers, the galaxy’s last line of offense against the bug-like Terminids and the robotic Automatons. As the protectors of Super Earth and all it stands for, you’ll take to the stars, dive onto planets, complete missions, and raise the flag for democracy and liberty.
ThoughHelldivers IIhas a strong premise along with a humorous tutorial, it doesn’t really have a narrative filled with plot or characters. Instead, much ofHelldivers IIrelies on players making their own stories as you fight to push back the Terminids and Automatons one system at a time. If you’re looking for a set story, you won’t find that inHelldivers II.
Bringing Democracy to the Galaxy
Instead, your time in the game involves teaming up with up to four-players to complete randomly generated missions across the galaxy. Once on the planet, you’ll be given one key objective and then set loose to approach it as you want. You can make a b-line straight for the objective and ex-fil after, or explore the entire map to complete side objectives, discover additional lore, and secure resources.
Helldiver II’s randomly generated maps and objectives feature a solid amount of variety. While early missions are more mundane (i.e. capturing spots or decrypting data drives), missions quickly evolve to be more complicated and dangerous (i.e. setting up ballistic missiles).Helldivers IIis not an easy game. The game can be absolutely brutal on higher difficulties thanks to it’s wave of enemies. WhileHelldivers IIpresents itself as a third-person shooter, dig deeper and you’ll find a game that requires a lot of strategy and coordination to complete more advanced objectives and ex-fil safely. There are moments whereHelldivers IIcan get repetitive, but the randomized nature of the objectives and planet biomes combined with the randomness/chaos created by teammates goes a long way in keeping the experience fresh.
Finding Beauty in Chaos
Despite the difficulty,Helldivers IIis a well-designed co-op game. Even with friendly fire on, the game managed to make losing fun and winning all that more satisfying. Accidentally running underneath a drop-pod, getting ripped apart by a friend’s freshly deployed turret, or watching your body parts ragdoll due to a misplaced explosive is genuinely funny inHelldivers II, but only if you play with others. WhileHelldivers IIis playable solo, the game loses much of its fun factor and can get a bit frustrating. So much of what makesHelldivers IIso appealing is the chaos of four people calling in drop pods, explosives, turrets, and orbital bombardments. Playing solo, unfortunately, takes all that away.
Helldivers 2 Exceeds Expectations with Nearly 1 Million Sales in Less Than a Week
Since its Steam launch, Helldivers 2 has been making waves in the gaming world, quickly solidifying its position as a major success.
Helldivers IIdeviates from its predecessor by switching from a top-down perspective to a third-person one, giving a better feeling of being on the ground amidst the battle. As a third-person shooter,Helldivers IIfeels good to play with responsive gameplay that requires thought. Unlike other shooters, the game actively encourages players to maximize their ammo to its fullest as reloading a clip gets rid of any remaining bullets. It also encourages staking out tactical positioning so you can slow down and take careful, measured shots as sprinting while firing causes wild recoil.Helldivers IIis immensely satisfying as a third-person shooter, and it packs a surprising amount of depth in its gunplay.
WhatHelldivers IIdoes carry over from its predecessor are Stratagems. Activated by inputting specific D-Pad codes, Stratagems are supportive actions meant to help you and your squad turn the tide of battle. you may call in heavy weapons like LMGs, snipers, railguns, and RPGs, additional supplies, turrets, and various orbital strikes. Knowing when to pull out each Stratagem is key and determinant in whether you complete a mission successfully or become another casualty in the galactic war.
Live Services Strike Back
As a live service game,Helldivers IIdelivers addicting and thoughtful gameplay that rewards strategy and punishes, hilariously, running around mindlessly. Paired together with a good variety of planets and a decent variety of missions, it’s easy to get sucked into mission after mission.Helldivers IIputs a nice spin on the live service genre by making players feel like they’re a cog in the war effort and not the “Chosen One” meant to save everything. It’s a refreshing spin that helps make the game engaging. That’s not to sayHelldivers IIdoesn’t fall prey to some live service curses, including its launch state. While nothing game breaking, the first week of the game’s life has been plagued by matchmaking issues, glitches like getting stuck inside geometry, and certain UI functions not working properly. All these are likely to be fixed in the future, but they are traditional nuisances that unfortunately still plague Live Services.
Helldivers IIalso falls into the bad Live Service habit of making progression as tedious as possible. It’s a game littered with currencies that are all applicable to different things. Medals unlock weapons, armor, emotes, and banners on this game’s version of the Battle Pass. EXP unlocks different Stratagems you can buy. Requisition Slips unlock those Stratagems. Samples unlock permanent stat upgrades for your Helldiver. Finally, Super Credits is the premium currency needed to buy specific cosmetic items from the shop. There’s a lot to keep track of, and it doesn’t help that Medals accumulate slowly. You’ll get a couple out of every match, but with all weapon unlocks tied to this system, it will be a while before you build out your personal arsenal. While it’s great that the Battle Passes aren’t time-gated, a streamlined progression system with less resources and more ways to acquire weapons would have been more engaging.
The Spectacle of Liberty
Helldivers II’spresentation is mostly well done with some nice-looking biomes populated with quite a lot of vegetation. While it may not pack top-of-the-line next-generation graphical features like ray-tracing, it does come packed with other impressive looking effects like volumetric lighting. It’s a decent-looking game that delivers where it matters most; the action. Blood sprays and limbs fly off the bodies of Terminids with each subsequent shot, and body parts spark and fall apart as you rip through Automatons. The action is intense, atmospheric, and is a spectacle to behold all while running at a smooth frame rate with an occasional dip. It also helps that the game sports some of the most impressive cape physics in any game.Helldivers IIisn’t the best-looking game out there, but it delivers where it matters.
Closing Comments:
Launching a live service game in today’s environment is a risky proposition. Not only are the market leaders incredibly entrenched, but launching a brand new one without a satisfying gameplay loop, content variety and character could doom a game right out of the gate.Helldivers IIbucks the trends with highly satisfying gameplay, a good variety of planets to explore and objectives to complete, unique hooks and hilarious improvised moments. Gunplay is punchy, smart and requires some thought to be effective, though it can also just be chaotic fun. Unique hooks like the Galactic War where you’re just another cog in the war effort rather than the “Chosen One” adds more stakes to every match. It’s also fun to hop into a match with friends and unleash all forms of chaos. It’s not perfect withHelldivers IIunable to escape every Live Service pitfall. Progression feels unnecessarily padded with multiple currencies to juggle, the fun factor doesn’t extend to playing solo and technical issues plague the post-launch week. Still,Helldivers IIdelivers where it matters and leaves us excited to see what Arrowhead can bring to the game next rather than leaving us pondering if the game can be saved.Helldivers IIis one galactic conflict players can happily dive into.
Helldivers II
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
